Thursday, May 26, 2011

Obama lauds everything the UK has surrendered to the EU or subsumed to the ECHR

President Obama’s historic speech to both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall was charismatically incomparable, rhetorically superlative and intuitively impeccable. His performance was measured and relaxed, and he appeared every inch a king. Certainly, there were a few errors in the content: in his opening line, he talked of it being an honour ‘to address the Mother of Parliaments’ (which is England, of course; not Westminster). And when talking of social diversity and immigrants, he said: “...if they come to England, they can make a new life for themselves and can sing God Save The Queen just like any other citizen” (it is curious how Americans insist on calling our country ‘England’ when that nation has been all but expunged by the British political class).

These are the sorts of errors which, had they been made by (say) George W Bush, would have made headlines in The Guardian and been spliced together and enshrined in perpetuity on YouTube with his other gaffes (like signing the Visitors’ Book in Westminster Abbey with the year 2008 [which is bizarre], and continuing his speech while the National Anthem was playing).

But this is a Democrat president, and they tend to be treated very differently by the left-leaning mainstream media and induce a degree of emotional ecstasy in their followership. Indeed, as President Obama was leaving Westminster Hall, it was disconcerting to see so many usually restrained British politicians stretching out their hands to touch the hem of his garment, as if this were the Messiah come to free the captives, heal the sick and proclaim the day of salvation.

The President’s speech pressed all the right buttons about that ‘special relationship’, pointedly mentioning ‘our shared history, our shared heritage; our ties of language and culture (and) the strong partnership between our governments’. And he alluded once again to the (unmentionable) Christian faith when he observed: “Our relationship is special because of the values and beliefs that have united our people through the ages.” He paid passing homage to the fount of those values and beliefs when he referred to the fact that ‘all beings are endowed by our Creator with certain rights that cannot be denied’, which was delightful if only because it would have irritated the hell out of the National Secular Society and the British Humanist Association, who usually froth and splutter over every allusion to the transcendent and non-material.

But there was a certain irony in President Obama’s gushing appreciation of what the English (and Adam Smith) have contributed to the pursuit of freedom and human dignity. He observed:

Centuries ago, when kings, emperors, and warlords reigned over much of the world, it was the English who first spelled out the rights and liberties of man in the Magna Carta. It was here, in this very hall, where the rule of law first developed, courts were established, disputes were settled, and citizens came to petition their leaders. Over time, the people of this nation waged a long and sometimes bloody struggle to expand and secure their freedom from the crown. Propelled by the ideals of the Enlightenment, they would ultimately forge an English Bill of Rights, and invest the power to govern in an elected parliament that's gathered here today.

What began on this island would inspire millions throughout the continent of Europe and across the world. But perhaps no one drew greater inspiration from these notions of freedom than your rabble-rousing colonists on the other side of the Atlantic. As Winston Churchill said, the "...Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, and English common law find their most famous expression in the American Declaration of Independence.

Magna Carta includes the clause:

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, nor will we proceed with force against him, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.

By virtue of this, the English and then the British have been able to take their governments to court if they believe those governments have misapplied the law. This remains the case in the United States, but it is not possible for EU citizens to challenge decisions forged in Brussels or stamped in Strasbourg. Habeas Corpus is being gradually supplanted by Corpus Juris, and the Bill of Rights 1689 appears has been replaced by the Charter of Fundamental Rights enshrined in the Lisbon Treaty. The UK has surrendered its sovereignty to the extent that decisions of unelected officials are immune from challenge, which has undermined democracy, accountability and the rule of law.

While Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights 1689 have (apparently) been (impliedly) repealed, the English system of Common Law is explicitly subsumed to the Napoleonic system. With the advent of the European Arrest Warrant, it is now possible to be extradited to another EU country, incarcerated in a foreign prison, refused an early appearance in court and required to prove that you have not committed the offence of which you stand accused (just ask Ben Herdman).

Corpus Juris has clearly brought an end to the presumption of innocence and the ancient rights of trial by jury and Habeas Corpus: unlike the UK, other EU countries are not obliged to charge you or bring you to court within 48 hours of arrest: indeed, you may now apparently be detained indefinitely at the foreign prince’s pleasure.

The founding texts of the British Constitution assert our liberties, create social harmony and sustain the peace of the realm. In this, President Obama is right to acknowledge that they guided America’s Revolution and constitute the founding principles of their Republic. The US Constitution codified the golden thread found in England’s disparate acts and treaties, namely that rights do not cascade down from government on high, but instead flow to the people from God, and it is they who determine the extent of the powers of government.

Yet the ‘Constitution for Europe’ turns this principle on its head: it includes an ‘enabling clause’ (Article II, Section 112) which permits the Commission and President to limit the rights and suspend the liberties of EU citizens should they see fit:

Any limitation on the exercise of the rights and freedoms recognised by this Charter must be provided for by law and respect the essence of those rights and freedoms. Subject to the principle of proportionality, limitations may be made only if they are necessary and genuinely meet objectives of general interest recognised by the Union or the need to protect the rights and freedoms of others.

Rights and liberties are sustained only to the extent that they ‘meet objectives of general interest recognised by the Union’. This is why those who have exposed financial fraud or blown the whistle on the Union’s waste, corruption and anti-democratic activities have been suspended, slandered and dismissed (one thinks of Bernard Connolly, Marta Andreasen and Hans-Martin Tillack). It is perhaps only a matter of time before such people are imprisoned (without ‘the lawful judgment of his [or her] equals’): such tends to be the abuse of power exercised by all authoritarian socialist unions.

President Obama said he stood in the Hall ‘where the rule of law first developed and courts were established’, but he seemed oblivious to the fact that those courts are now subject to the European Court of Justice and so the rule of law has been negated. The ECJ behaves like the Star Chamber and is constitutionally obliged to rule in the interests of the Union: it cannot make a judgement which would be incompatible with the objective of ‘ever closer union’. All individual rights and liberties are subject to this sacred writ.

It is ironic that an American president so appreciates what successive British prime ministers have come to despise. The God-given rights revealed in the Judaeo-Christian scriptures and developed under the Anglo-American Enlightenment tradition of Natural Law have been usurped by a European Union Napoleonic system in which the state has become the ultimate arbiter of what privileges (‘rights’) are permitted and what liberties are protected. The state has been made omnipotent and has become both judge and jury, responsible for prosecution and punishment. And anyone who presumes to oppose any of this is labeled ‘extremist’ or ‘xenophobic’, and may be subject to ‘limitations’ which meet the ‘objectives...recognised by the Union’.

The United Kingdom bequeathed to the United States a supreme constitution which seeks to restrict governments rather than pretended they can create rights that only God can endow. The United Kingdom has abandoned that heritage, leaving the United States alone to articulate and manifest what we once meant by ‘liberty’ and ‘justice’.

33 Comments:

Interesting to see Habeas Corpus in contest with Corpus Juris. The whole article correct and instructive.

Westminster Hall: such fond memories, stuff for a new style Lord Chancellor's reverie of things past while his favoured Union plods on its weary way--- William Rufus (a Ruddy King), Richard II (an Unbalanced King),Warren (aka Laurence) Hastings, the Common Law Courts (before Benthamite abolishment), lyings in state of those whose like will not be seen again... Could have missed hearing that reversal in the sequence "ideals of the Enlightenment.. would ultimately forge an English Bill of Rights".

Beware of Bogdanors (and any GOD squadders) bearing gifts for a written constitution.

The USA has democracy , but it has had its more recent undomocratic moments , there are refinements in the UK way of doing things as he says forged in the fires of our history.It is easy for people to champion democratic freedom via a platform of stardom , as they rarely touch on the need for personal responsibility (and what is required to make that work) , enabling them to make gush laden and warm speaking . The USA is built on its inbuilt get up and go ,its can do attitude , some may see this as liberating , however running a debt is ultimately a financial prison .The USA is now joining the deficet reduction idea which in turn will affect its goverment.Obama the president on the world platform on the back end of a huge debt mountain , will be replaced by Obama who is needs to ensure he fully understands what is ecnomically wrong or right with the USA and can make an economy work without goverment borrowing ,masking any underlying problems .

Whilst he/we have some international matters on the go , of course he can apply hope and change speaking , but I think he will find the injustice of the deficet a much harder task , as some may ask why he did not act sooner or why he thought the debts didnt matter.

He is wrong to trumpet the EU as a modern success on the back of clearly delusional Euro theory and its unelected rulers , the UK may look a more honest country in few years time , somthing we owe to our history and modernistic busts.

Made all the more so by the news from the Commons today. That only 48 MPs backed the vote calling for the deficit savings we are making with all the cuts, being shovelled off to Brussels to save the Euro, which we never joined.

And of those 48 how many were from the Eurosceptic Tory party? Thirty. Out of 308.

Thirty. *sigh* If only His Grace were to put his formidable intellect and talent behind the only party which truly opposes this monstrosity, and doesn't just pretend to do so in the most disgustingly disingenuos fashion, just to placate its "right" as and when necessary.

Events this past week certainly show UKIP could do with all the help it can get at the moment. The sharks certainly appear to be circling UKIP.

'The greatest theme of history is, and perhaps always will be, the unending story of men's efforts to reconcile order and liberty, the two essential ingredients of a truly great civilization.' - B. Wilkinson.

.. the sort who knew what that meant are gone, we are now governed by children, who play table tennis and eat burgers.

He has broken almost every single Constituional law pertaining to the Presidency. He has effectively diminished the role of a whole branch of the government. He absolutely ignores Congress and openly disregards its rulings. For example, he continues to keep 39 "czars" on the payroll despite Congress's rule to de-fund them. These are personal political operatives who are unelected by the people and and unvetted by Congress--a shadow government. Last week, he told Congress that he doesn't need to ask their permission to go to war. If he thinks he can't get a candidate through Congress, he just appoints them anyway.

And he just appointed a other "czar" to hunt out and destroy any criticism of him; in other words, a "Truth" czar.

Plato thought that Society was a big Beast. It will always require force. He compared Society to a huge beast which men are forced to serve and whose reflexes they study in order to derive their beliefs concerning good and evil.

(Weil) ...all men are absolutely incapable of having on the subject of good and evil opinions other than those dictated by the reflexes of the beast (Society)

In that sense we are never free.

Karl Popper believed that..

We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.

Now I think that if you belong to Society then you have already lost your freedom and are constrained by force.

"Did Osborne grasp the opportunity to talk to the President about economics?"

Would this be the same George Osborne of "keep bailing 'em out" fame? Is this the one who has shown such a superb grasp of economic principle and economic stewardship that he has managed to give away £12.5 Billion of our 'spare' and taxed income to the Irish, Greeks, and Portugese?

The same one who at a stroke, has more than wiped out over twofold any savings for the UK budget through his "cuts"?

London is Disneyworld for Americans. It is a fantasy creation rather than a city on an island. They learn about Magna Carta because they kept it throughout the War after it was loaned in 1939 to improve Britain's image in The New World as the new King and Queen visited the USA.

It has quaint notions, but Obama did not praise the regicides who ensured Parliament could stand against Absolutism. When did he praise Cromwell ?

Did he praise the Act of Settlement Americans refused to acknowledge so they could not be Anglicans with Canterbury but had to go to Scotland ?

Did he praise Defence of the Real ACt (DORA) ? Or Rule 18B ? Did he admire the Septennial Act or the Parliament Acts ?

Did he ask why the British Bill of Rights no longer has the right to bear arms enshrined as Second Amendment in his own country's Bill of Rights ?

No. Because he used the Disneyfied version of England to make the Dwarves and Pixies of Rubber-Stamp Parliament feel good about their impotence and irrelevance

It is very sad that we had so much and our politicians have given it all away, without even asking us. What once made our Country great has all 'gone down the tubes'and become merely a memory.Where are the Churchill`s, where are the Lloyd Georges , where in fact is any sort of leadership?.What we have now are mere 'front men'creations of the world of'spin',lacking substance and any real sort of direction. We have now become a minor state in the E U, part of the grand plan to 'unite Europe(in other words to make us all subservient to our masters, group us all together so we are easier to control)

We have had our birthright surrendered for us for a 'mess of pottage'.

leaving the United States alone to articulate and manifest what we once meant by ‘liberty’ and ‘justice’. Yes, Your Grace; and some Americans understand that - as we see from contributions to your blog.

Others don't get it, though. They say the words without walking the walk. The sickness is pernicious, widespread, debilitating - and it prevails over a marxist-mafia pyramid.

[[At the broader base of that pyramid, in a college library, I recently read an article criticising the unprecedented rise of "hate groups" in the U.S. The whole piece attacked racist, xenophobic, hard right (etc.) extremists. The paper was strategically placed at the entrance of a room they reserve for remediation: of those who've entered college without attaining the traditional level of literacy. The majority of such students are devoted, yes - "hem-touching" followers of the 'great man' who is their President. Oh, and they adore his wife: who is here to re-define the word "queen."]]]

Nationally, we are as Wile E. Coyote, who runs headlong off the edge of a precipice but doesn't fall to the depths of the chasm until he actually notices that he no longer has ground under his feet.

More and more of us are beginning to perceive that we are in defiance of gravity.

What will give us that final awareness? I suspect it will be a further financial collapse. But whatever it is, it is inevitable as the values that underpinned our older generation are no longer inculcated, and as incompetence, moral decay, governmental corruption and educational vacuity become impossible to resist. Third world, here we come.

Wherever one turns there is hopelessness. We have been destroyed. In the words of the late prophet Enoch, I am filled with foreboding. I fear for the future of my grandchildren.

Obama is a hyprocrite. When he visited Moneygall in Ireland, all the villagers were required to hand over personal details via form filling. Homes were searched and those people who would rather stay at home on the day of his visit, were accompanied by an armed police officer, while other police officers were stationed outside.

...To oversimplify, the Whitehall system which is now prevailing stems from Lloyd George setting up the Cabinet Office to run the war machine, controlling industry and local government in aid of the war effort, then the post-war effort and once again the war effort and post-war effort up to and beyond Heath's Great Betrayal Act [European Communities] Act 1972. The extent to which this is connected with the above-mentioned "marxist-mafia pyramid" may be a moot point. Churchill's great contribution (October 1941) was the call "Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never...!"

'"I am filled with foreboding. I fear for the future of my grandchildren.'"

Here's what he said on appeasment and terrorists, again from the 1970's:

“The experience of the last decade and more, all round the world, shows that acts of violence, however apparently irrational or inappropriate their targets, precipitate a frenzied search on the part of the society attacked to discover and remedy more and more grievances, real or imaginary, among those from whom the violence is supposed to emanate or on whose behalf it is supposed to be exercised. Those commanding a position of political leverage would then be superhuman if they could refrain from pointing to the acts of terrorism and, while condemning them, declaring that further and faster concessions and grants of privilege are the only means to avoid such acts being repeated on a rising scale. We know that those who thus argue will always find a ready hearing. This is what produces the gearing effect of terrorism in the contemporary world, yielding huge results from acts of violence perpetrated by minimal numbers. It is not, I repeat again and again, that the mass of a particular population are violently or criminally disposed. Far from it; that population soon becomes itself the prisoner of the violence and machinations of an infinitely small minority among it. Just a few thugs, a few shots, a few bombs at the right place and time and that is enough for disproportionate consequences to follow.” - Enoch Powell

And the Establishment ridiculed this great man for speaking the truth.

Yes, Steve. He knew the reality I had seen elsewhere. I remember walking home from school later, back in England, and arguing in favour of his case. But that was a red hot Labour stronghold - they didn't want to hear it then, any more than they do now.

This country will be closely followed by the USA into Pan-National Socialism.

A rather nasty cross between A Brave New World, and 1984, with a large slice of Animal Farm, and Friday 13th thrown in for good measure and extra entertainment.

This is our common destiny unless we WAKE-UP to the enemy within. Which as others on this tread have already alluded to, is our own respective establishments.

Democracy has long been an utter sham, but at least it forced the establishment to seek to persuade rather then to dictate.

Rather then bother with such time consuming and expensive methods of control, namely democracy, the establishment long since decided to take an alternative rout.

They logically considered that rather then simply marching in and taking authoritarian control, picking off individual nations one by one, and then consuming them into one pan-national dictatorial state, was the way to go.

This pan-national state is as many of you clearly know, goes by the name of The European Union.

If there was just one important fact to remember in all of this treachery and subversion, it is this.

The exact same group of families who have long since controlled capitalism, not only invented SOCIALISM, but have been promoting it all over the globe for over 150 or more years.

Having now succeeded in bringing every independent nation to its knees by infecting them with various forms of socialism, from Marxist Communism, all the way to Fascist Corporatism, they are now coming for their own. Namely, Britain and The USA.

Britain as you so rightly observe your Grace is all but a done deal. The USA will be a tougher and larger nut to crack, however cracking it most surely is, and faster then many feared.

At times like this it is best to remain positive. This is difficult for many reasons, the most frustrating and depressing one being that most can not see what is so clearly coming, while still less seem to care, even when people like my self try so very hard to spell it out for them.

The mindless trust the mass of the profane still have for establishment institutions like the BBC would be most reassuringly touching, if it were not so sadly pathetic.

The most upsetting thing is realizing that a majority of our intellectual class seem to think a cross between A Brave New World and 1984 is actually a good thing to aspire to, instead of very likely our worst possible collective nightmare.

So what about the positives?

There remains a slim chance that in practice it might turn out to be just a very bad dream. That our ruling elites have turned over a completely new leaf, and decided not to cause yet another genocidal WW, or something even more murderous. The signs are not good in this respect, however it has not yet happened, so this must be regarded as a positive thing.

Of course the truly positive news is that the next world, simply must be better then this one. As at least in this we will likely know our Lord, and masters, instead of pointlessly following stuffed puppets like Obama and Cameron around the globe, like they have some kind of power, or relevance to anything remotely important.

Also I do not consider it at all likely that the next place will contain corporations such as News Corporation, and most certainly not The British Broadcasting Corporation.

"President Obama’s historic speech to both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall was charismatically incomparable, rhetorically superlative and intuitively impeccable. His performance was measured and relaxed, and he appeared every inch a king."

We are, I fear, very used to the way in which the UK TV broadcasters mock any and every US president who is a Republican and cast him as a fool and a moron. Every one of them has had this treatment. By contrast, I remember when Clinton was elected and the same "welcome the conquering hero" attitude.

It is contemptible. But it's worse than that. It's stupid and dangerous. Whatever US presidents are, none of them are fools. And to allow this little handful of treacherous left wing bastards to mislead the lot of us about the most powerful nation of earth, just out of some petty spite, may one day cause this country irreparable damage.

We need reform of the media. At the moment we have the BBC on two channels, which is institutionally leftist; a special "alternative" (code word of leftist) channel 4; and two commercial channels which use much the same staff. It's a monopoly, and we urgently need some political balance. We need an equivalent to Fox News.

About His Grace:

Archbishop Cranmer takes as his inspiration the words of Sir Humphrey Appleby: ‘It’s interesting,’ he observes, ‘that nowadays politicians want to talk about moral issues, and bishops want to talk politics.’ It is the fusion of the two in public life, and the necessity for a wider understanding of their complex symbiosis, which leads His Grace to write on these very sensitive issues.

Cranmer's Law:

"It hath been found by experience that no matter how decent, intelligent or thoughtful the reasoning of a conservative may be, as an argument with a liberal is advanced, the probability of being accused of ‘bigotry’, ‘hatred’ or ‘intolerance’ approaches 1 (100%).”

Follow His Grace on

The cost of His Grace's conviction:

His Grace's bottom line:

Freedom of speech must be tolerated, and everyone living in the United Kingdom must accept that they may be insulted about their own beliefs, or indeed be offended, and that is something which they must simply endure, not least because some suffer fates far worse. Comments on articles are therefore unmoderated, but do not necessarily reflect the views of Cranmer. Comments that are off-topic, gratuitously offensive, libelous, or otherwise irritating, may be summarily deleted. However, the fact that particular comments remain on any thread does not constitute their endorsement by Cranmer; it may simply be that he considers them to be intelligent and erudite contributions to religio-political discourse...or not.

The Anglican Communion has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ's Church from the beginning.Dr Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1945-1961

British Conservatism's greatest:

The epithet of 'great' can be applied only to those who were defining leaders who successfully articulated and embodied the Conservatism of their age. They combined in their personal styles, priorities and policies, as Edmund Burke would say, 'a disposition to preserve' with an 'ability to improve'.

I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS.(Prime Minister 1979-1990)

We have not overthrown the divine right of kings to fall down for the divine right of experts.Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC.(Prime Minister 1957-1963)

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.Sir Winston Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC (Can).(Prime Minister 1940-1945, 1951-1955)

I am not struck so much by the diversity of testimony as by the many-sidedness of truth.Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, KG, PC.(Prime Minister 1923-1924, 1924-1929, 1935-1937)

If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome; if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent; if you believe the military, nothing is safe.Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, KG, GCVO, PC.(Prime Minister 1885-1886, 1886-1892, 1895-1902)

I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and to respect order, and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many or the prejudices of the few.Benjamin Disraeli KG, PC, FRS, Earl of Beaconsfield.(Prime Minister 1868, 1874-1880)

Public opinion is a compound of folly, weakness, prejudice, wrong feeling, right feeling, obstinacy, and newspaper paragraphs.Sir Robert Peel, Bt.(Prime Minister 1834-1835, 1841-1846)

I consider the right of election as a public trust, granted not for the benefit of the individual, but for the public good.Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool.(Prime Minister 1812-1827)

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.The Rt Hon. William Pitt, the Younger.(Prime Minister 1783-1801, 1804-1806)